Many complex radio communication systems employ system consoles to provide operational control through an operator interface. In a typical approach, a computer terminal having a display interface is connected to a centralized computer system which provides support for overall radio system control. The centralized computer system interfaces with communication hardware, such as wireless transmitters and receivers, telephone interconnect switching systems, and the like, to provide integrated communication services. The system console may support a dispatch operator position through which the operator may access portions of the radio communication system, to receive incoming calls or to communicate with remotely situated subscribers. System configuration and resource information is ordinarily kept in databases on the centralized computer, and management and maintenance methods for such information is well known in the art.
With the advent of computer networks and distributed computing systems, there is an ever-increasing trend away from centralized computer architectures toward a more distributed computing environment for general computing systems. Benefits inherent in such distributed systems, include better resource distribution, the potential for less expensive computing hardware, and potential system reliability improvements. It is desirable to have a radio communication control system that takes advantage of some of the benefits inherent in distributed computing systems. Yet, there are particular problems to be solved related to the management of resource configuration information to ensure consistency and overall system integrity. Therefore, a method of providing distributed operational control of a radio communication system is needed.